The Roman Predicament: How the Rules of International Order Create the Politics of Empire

Modern America owes the Roman Empire for more than gladiator movies and the architecture of the nation's Capitol. It can also thank the ancient republic for some helpful lessons in globalization. So argues economic historian Harold James in this masterful work of intellectual history.


The book addresses what James terms "the Roman dilemma"—the paradoxical notion that while global society depends on a system of rules for building peace and prosperity, this system inevitably leads to domestic...